(Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 genres of historic books have been digitized in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Provincial authorities began digitalizing the historic works in 2014. So far, 2,214 books have been scanned and are available free of charge online for readers, said Wang Shuiqiao, curator of Yunnan Provincial Library.

"Many of the books have been damaged due to frequent usage over a long period of time, and digitalizing them is a good way to protect the information they contain," Wang said.

Yunnan is home to multiple ethnic minority groups and countless historic books depicting them. The latest government figures show that there are more than 1 million historic books in Yunnan.

"We hope to protect the ancient knowledge as well as sharing it with the public," Wang said